


While you don't know

by Abijam



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 21:05:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14293446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abijam/pseuds/Abijam
Summary: Zavala meets a guy that he had never seen in his apartment before. A short fic based in Modern New York AU. Slow and boring.





	While you don't know

**Author's Note:**

> No proof reading done. Please ignore grammar/spelling mistakes. Just wanted to see Zavala wearing suits, Shaxx with a T-shirt and adidas training pants, and Cayde with a hoodie and jeans. Characters' personalities may differ from the original. Please read it with a light-heart.

"Well then, I'm heading off."

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow."

Don't stay up all night. We've got work to do tomorrow. Hawthorne told him before she went out the door, waving her hand. Zavala nodded half-heartedly, but Hawthorn was too exhausted to care for it. When she left, the office fell into a even louder silence except for the sound of computers and air conditioner. Zavala spun his shoulders and stretched his neck to both sides. His body made some painful sounds. The clock was already at eleven. It meant he's been in work from six o'clock in the morning and has already spent nearly seventeen hours working non stop.

As Hawthorne said, there was an important meeting tomorrow. Zavala started working at this company for five years. It was almost six years if he counted his internship before graduation. DT Company was one of the most prominent companies in Wall Street and was as busy as what anyone could imagine. Since he began his internship until now, he never had been able to use his vacation leave and that applied to most of his colleagues as well. They were all on the same page here. There were a lot of people who got tired and quit when they were still new in the company, but Zavala managed to stay until now. He did not realise before he came into the company that he actually enjoyed working quite a lot.

And he had to say the amount of work he could do was also possible because he had enough strength to do it. And he meant physical strength; it was a tough job to work nearly every single day. Just before the midnight, He turned off the computer and got up from his seat. Tomorrow was the day to deal with a group of some important buyers, so it was likely that they would have to spend whole tomorrow's night working considering the importance of this business. Thinking about it, it was better to go home before it gets too late as Hawthorne said. As Zavala walked out of his cubicle and to the corridor, he met a couple of other people from other departments whose faces were familiar and shared a short greeting. When Zavala left the building, the streets of New York were still active as during the day.

Zavala took a taxi out of habit. His apartment was only ten minutes away by car. The driver did not seem too happy about it when he told him his destination. Zavala did not care too much. He checked his cell phone and there were already twelve new work-related e-mails piled up. There were many people from this industry who never slept. After checking that there was nothing urgent, he checked the missed call he received few hours ago. It was a call from Shaxx. There was so messages left from Shaxx so Zavala assumed it probably was no more than to ask him to have dinner together or some sort. He turned off the cell phone screen that only has boring basic apps, and he paid the taxi fee. Summer was approaching, and the air was a bit warmer than few days ago. Zavala loosened his tie slightly as he walked out of the taxi. Then entered the quiet villa, pressed the elevator button, and waited. It was like any of a normal night after work until he went inside the elevator door and pressed the third floor button.

"Oh, wait a minute."

A hand suddenly popped between elevator doors that were nearly closed.

Zavala had to admit that he was a little startled - more because he could not see or hear anyone coming until the moment the door closed in front of his face. Even though the elevator door opened itself again, he pressed the Open button few times quickly almost out of panic. When the door opened, Zavala saw a young man standing there. He came inside the elevator box as soon as the doors opened. The young man winked at him.

"Thanks."

There was something very casual in the way the guy acted, like they have met each other before. Zavala nodded shortly. The young man leaned against the walls in a corner. He was wearing slim fitted jeans with a gray hoodie on top of a cap; he seemed to be a college student, or somewhere around that age. In the quiet elevator, Zavala could hear small sounds of the guy chewing a gum. The doors were already closed. Zavala waited for the young man to press a button but he did not move at all. It was a little strange. On the third floor there were no other tenants except Zavala himself and Shaxx.

To think any deeper about it, there was not much time needed to reach the third floor. Zavala went to his apartment with a bit of awareness of this stranger. As he went through his pocket and looked for the key, Zavala looked over the shoulder and checked on the the guy. He could see the back of the young man in front of the door of Shaxx's house. The guy's fingers were moving fast on the keypad; Shaxx had changed the lock of the door into a password format a while ago, saying that it was annoying to carry the keys all the time. Zavala wondered if the keypad was going to be broken because the beeping sound it made as the guy was moving his hand was too fast. A couple of times when he entered wrong passwords Zavala almost doubted that he could be a thief, but soon the door opened with a pleasant sound. The young man opened the door to the minimum and just swooped inside like a fox or something. All his moves were so fast that it all happened in less than a minute. Zavala, dumbfounded, had to stare at the closed door with a stupid expression for a while.

"Weren't you supposed to come home early last night?"

Five hours later, Shaxx asked him as they were jogging, his voice bit rough from exercise. It was early in the morning, but there were countless other people who were on the riverside of New York, jogging, just like Zavala and Shaxx. They were bigger than most of the people they could see on the street so sometimes they had to uncomfortably move to the side. Zavala let a person running from the opposite pass through by moving behind Shaxx and then he caught up by his friend's side soon after again.

"Today's the day we meet people from FL. I had to get ready."

"Are you the team leader?"

"It happened."

"Good, you'll be promoted in three months."

Zavala shrugged. Promotion in such a big company was not as easy as it sounds. After all, Zavala just managed to get out of his junior years not long ago so the word promotion seemed too far for him to reach. This time, the person who originally was to lead the meeting was to leave the company for some personal reasons, which somehow brought the opportunity to take the position to Zavala. Shaxx tapped Zavala's sweaty shoulder.

"You seem to work too hard."

"It hasn't been too long since I started working."

"It's normal to take a break. Or are you going to stack up all your holiday leaves and go travel the world?"

Zavala thought about it. "That doesn't sound bad."

"Let's have dinner together this weekend."

Shaxx complained that they do not get to catch up often even though they live in the same building. But Zavala knew that Shaxx was almost as busy as he was. They see each other every morning for jogging but yeah, like Shaxx said he has been working too much these days. After all Shaxx was one of his only friends in New York; probably the only one that was close enough. After they finished jogging, they said short goodbyes in front of each other's house and Zavala watched as Shaxx went into the door, which suddenly reminded him about the young man he met last night. He wanted to ask, but Shaxx was already gone.

The meeting, which started at eight in the morning, was over by almost eleven. Hawthorn, who was smiling until the moment the buyers were leaving, came back to her tired face as soon as they left. She disappeared saying that she's going to get a coffee with almost of a disgusted look on her face. The deal went well, but Hawthorne seemed to have no energy left to celebrate. Of course, some of their colleagues who were constantly on cocaine were excited as rhinos and wanted to pop a few champagnes today. Zavala said thanks back to people who congratulated him, and then he returned to his seat as usual and worked as if nothing had happened.

Zavala tried to stay in this office to finish off his work that night, but he was dragged to go for drinks. Almost everyone including his bosses were going so he realised he could not get away this time. He listened to some well-expected compliments from people in the line of "I wasn't too sure if you could do it, but you did pretty good", and had couple of drinks, then made a lame excuse to send drunk Hawthorne home to leave the place. The night was deep but the city was loud with drunk people and music on the streets. Hawthorne, who was pretending to be drunk, stood sober straight as soon as they left the bar and took a cigarette from her pocket.

"Working with druggies has a toll on me."

Zavala loosened his tie. "You said you want to stay in Wall Street."

"And you don't?"

"I... am satisfied with where I am now, but if you say ten years time, I'm not too sure."

Hawthorne shrugged. "True. You're too good to stay with people like this."

Zavala told her he would say the same for her as well. Somehow Hawthorne found it funny that he said such thing, and she laughed for a while. She dropped the cigarette on the ground and turned the light off with her heel.

"I'm seeing someone but I'm not gonna marry. I want to work until I get so old that I can't physically work anymore, ya know."

"Is that so."

"But I'm getting tired of this place, and ... maybe I'll change cities. How about you, Zavala? Do you have someone?"

He shook his head. There were few women in his life, but Zavala could not find anyone he could settle down with. As well, he did not have enough time to meet someone after he joined the company. Hawthorne did not need explanation; she nodded as if she understood everything. Well, when I saw you working, I guessed anyway. Zavala looked at her and Hawthorne shrugged again.

"You do work a lot, you know."

He stared at her for a moment and Hawthorne looked slightly stung. She was also like him; always working. Told you, that's why I'm not getting married. Hawthorn added like a sigh.

Zavala helped her catching a taxi home. It was only about ten o'clock in the night when Zavala returned to his apartment. He came home earlier than he expected, so he decided to take a shower and finish some left over paper work. It was weekend from tomorrow, so if he worked now he might be able to leave office relatively early tomorrow. Then, on Sunday, there was a chance Zavala did not have to go to the office at all. He had a shower then turned on the TV on news channel, boiled a cup of tea, and opened the laptop. He only had couple of drinks before so he was still feeling sober.

It was about thirty to forty minutes later that he heard a door banging outside the entrance. It looked like Shaxx was back home. Soon after, Zavala heard laughs and sounds of something falling down on the floor. Their apartments had a shared wall between each other's living room, so if they were both in the living room as they were now, they could hear if there was a loud voice. Zavala heard a glass breaking, then soon after a laugh that were followed by obvious moans. He closed the laptop and got up from the sofa.

Well, it was Friday night. He did not care that Shaxx would often bring someone. He was just a little surprised that the sound he heard was not a woman's voice.

Six hours later, Zavala left home with a T-shirt, shorts, and running shoes to jog with. Unless something happened, they met each other at the front door of the houses exactly the same time every day. Yesterday, thanks to the noises from across the wall, Zavala had to bring his work to bed so he was feeling stiff on the shoulders from sitting in a position that was far from comfortable. Soon there came Shaxx, wearing a tight T-shirt and long training pants.

"Good morning, Shaxx."

"Yeah."

Shaxx answered almost grunting, his voice still filled with sleepy tiredness. He spun his waist to sides trying to stretch. Nothing out of ordinary. Everything seemed like usual to Zavala until he called the elevator and then the door of Shaxx's apartment opened from inside.

"You forgot your phone."

Zavala stared. Surprisingly, it was the young man he saw last time.

The young man was wearing jeans with a hoodie that looked the same as last time but with different colour, and was holding out Shaxx's cellphone with a blank face. He did not have a cap on this time so Zavala could see his sandy blonde hair and olive-colored skin. Shaxx took his cell phone from him without saying anything. Then the eyes of the young man turned to meet Zavala's. It was the younger person who said something first.

"Oh hey, didn't I see you before?"

Before Zavala could reply, Shaxx pushed Zavala's back towards the elevator.

"Don't fool around and go home, Cayde."

Zavala heard an annoyed voice behind him as he got on the elevator, but it was soon gone. The weather was pretty cold outside. There were no conversations between them until they finished running their usual track along the banks of the river. In fact, Zavala did not know what to say exactly. All circumstances added, it seemed quite obvious that Shaxx had a very "intimate" relationship with that young man. And Zavala knew that Shaxx never had a relationship with a man before.

Maybe Shaxx always had such a preference and just didn't mention it to Zavala. Maybe Shaxx did not want to Zavala to know about it. Maybe he didn't even want Zavala to meet the guy. So Zavala hesitated to ask. Shaxx was a friend of his, but he still deserved privacy ... As Zavala was silently thinking, they had already returned to where they started. Instead of going back into the apartment like usual, Shaxx nodded his chin in a different direction.

"You start late today, right? Come have a coffee with me."

There was no reason to refuse his offer, so Zavala gladly nodded. Shaxx did not say where they were going, but Zabal knew he was going to a nearby franchise store.

The cafes in Brooklyn Heights opened fairly early because there were so many people in the neighborhood who head to work at dawn. There were no one in the café; it seemed like they were the first customers of the day, and the employees who were familiar with Shaxx's face greeted them with smile as they were finishing off the opening process. Shaxx bought one long black and an iced americano, with two bottles of water on the side and they sat outside wiping sweats off from their faces with towels. Shaxx drank half of his water and iced coffee in seconds.

"You got questions all over your face. What's stopping you?"

Shaxx asked, grinning. Zavala knew that it was useless trying to avoid Shaxx who never asked the long way around. Zavala shook his head, wiping the sweat from his chin.

"It is your privacy."

"And I see you were bearing with me every time I interfered with yours."

"I did not mean it that way."

"I know, I know, just giving you shit." said Shaxx, leaning on his back. His chair was groaning with the man's heavy body. "I'm seeing him casually. Do you remember I said last time that my company was going to organise an exchange programme with H College? I met him there.

Soon after Zavala started working, Shaxx was able to successfully launch his own company. It was still growing steadily, and Zavala heard that there were branches in other cities and was in the process of running several projects with several important institutions at the same time. The internship programme was one of the fairly recent project, if Zavala remembered it correctly. He nodded as if he understood. He did think that young man looked no more than a college student and he was actually right. It was still surprising in many ways, what Shaxx is doing with the guy, but Zavala did not speak out. But yet again Shaxx seemed to have read his mind.

"I have never done this with a guy before, so don't think too far ahead."

"I did not, but ... it sounds risky. He's your intern."

"He doesn't work in my company. I sent him to another place that I know, because he was too good to be my intern." said Shaxx nonchalantly. "Once he's done I'm going to recruit him back."

Again, this was surprising. It was something rare to see Shaxx giving compliments to someone - he always had high standards. Because of that, Zavala could literally count the number of people who could become friends with Shaxx since the day he knew him. The fact that Shaxx recognised that young man in such way meant that the guy was actually good at what he was doing, even if the guy looked far away from taking anything seriously. Moreover, Shaxx who never went out with a guy ever in his life, was having a sort of relationship with this man. It seemed bit more than something casual to Zavala. He crossed arms giving Shaxx a suspicious look.

"And you are sure that this is going to stay casual."

Shaxx did not hesitate to shake his head.

"That guy can be a real pain in the ass."

So the young man who was really good at what he was doing but could be a pain in the ass did not bump into Zavala anymore for some time. The fact was if it just stayed that way Zavala would have forgotten about the guy long time ago, but the problem was that from time to time he would hear loud noises or someone moaning from across the wall and this did not help at all. Once he could hear them arguing as well. It did not happen often, only once or twice a week, but Shaxx did not talk about it too much and Zavala did not ask. They were not used to talking too much anyway. But one thing for sure was that Shaxx did not really care too much about the guy he is seeing, at least not enough so that he wanted to talk about him anyway.

Zavala's department went into some sort of a short break as soon as the big deal was passed safely. That did not mean Zavala could take a break, but at least it was clear that the number of night shifts he had to do for following week or two were relatively small. Hawthorne seemed to be happy about it. Zavala also did not complain that he could finish work at about seven o'clock, because it gave him time to go to the gym after work. He has been doing some exercises in the morning, but it would be good to go back to gym for some proper weight lifting sessions.

Tomorrow was Sunday, and that meant he could relax for the night. When Zavala came back to the house which was five minutes walk from the gym, he was sweaty with all the work out that he had done for last two hours. Zavala tried to remember what was in the refrigerator for dinner. Twice a week, the housekeeper came to clean and cook during the day so he did not have to make his own meals. He would prefer not to have a housekeeper if it was possible, but the amount of work that he had to do everyday did not give him much options. Last night he had stir fried chicken, so it was probably going to be lasagna tonight. When Zavala came out of the elevator on his floor as he was finishing off his protein shake, he stopped abruptly as he saw someone who he was not expecting to see at all.

"Hey, big guy. Long time no see."

The young man waved his hand with a smile. He was sitting on the floor with his back leaning against Shaxx's front door. It had been three weeks sine the last time Zavala saw him. Zavala almost waved back to him unconsciously but managed to stop himself.

"... Why are you sitting here?"

"Wow, you could actually speak. That's cool."

"......"

Wrong answer. Zavala closed his lips tight. He stared at the young man for a while, and then turned around to open his door. That was when he heard the guy's voice again, like he had something urgent.

"Wait, hold on, I need to ask you something." When Zavala turned his head, the young man was standing in front of him now, looking troubled. His almond-shaped eyes were a little bit down like a cat in the rain. "Um, well, I left my bag in Shaxx's house. Everything's in there. My money, keys, phone ... but I can't get the door open."

Zavala was going to just ignore him, but now there was no way he could do that anymore. And the guy was pretty good at making a sad looking face. That same smug look Zavala had seen every time he met this guy was nowhere to be found. It was obvious that he was very good at this kind of thing. However, even though Zavala knew that for a fact, it was in his personality that he could not just leave him outside. Zavala opened his door and entered the house. Then he held the door open with one arm and gave way to the young man for him to come inside. A question mark appeared on the face of the young man who was looking disappointed as if he thought Zavala would just go in.

"Shaxx is on a business trip. I'll try to contact him for you, but I cannot be sure when he is going to reply. So wait inside."

Only if you want. He added out of his habitual politeness. The young man hesitated for a bit, but soon shrugged his shoulders and said he would come in.

Zavala realised as soon as the young man came into the house that he hardly ever let anyone else come to his house before. The guy was Shaxx's 'friend' in a way so Zavala let him in without thinking too much, but now that he thought about it, he almost knew nothing about the guy. Zavala went to the kitchen to put the shake bottle into the sink. While he was taking out the lasagna from the refrigerator, the young man who followed him into the apartments and examined the surroundings like a suspicious cat. I did not look around, but he was attentive and his steps were slow. Zavala told him he could sit on the sofa. London will be at dawn by now. Zavala made phone calls couple of times, but Shaxx did not receive them, so he decided to leave a message instead. The young man sitting on the sofa was staring at him all the time while he was trying to reach Shaxx.

Zavala felt pressured. He cleared his throat. "I left a message. I'll be two o'clock in the morning over there, so I guess Shaxx is asleep."

"Where did he go?"

"London."

"He probably didn't even think about telling me." The young man muttered as relaxed his body on the couch. He did not look mad, but more like he expected this. "Anyway, what're you gonna do now?"

"...?"

"I can't go home without my keys." The young man leaned on his elbow on the armrest and rested his chin, giving him a playful look. "If you don't hear anything back from Shaxx, you gonna let me sleep here?"

... Zavala did not think about that. But now, thinking about letting him sleep in his apartment, Zavala reminded himself that he really knew nothing about this young man. He did not seem like a bad guy, but how could he be sure? A couple of negative results popped up in his mind but they disappeared quickly. Shaxx knew this guy and let him stay close by, so that actually gave him some credibility. He could steal things maybe, that would be too bad.

"We will think about that later. Did you eat dinner?"

"... Uh, no."

Lasagna was just enough for two servings. Zavala preheated the oven. "I am going to have a shower. You can watch TV for the time being."

When he came back to the living room after shower and changing into comfortable clothes, the young man was watching an entertainment programme. He even had his shoes off and was laying on the sofa like it was his own home. Zavala, still unfamiliar with the fact that a stranger was in his house, went to the kitchen trying to ignore him. He took the wrap off from lasagna and put it in the oven. After all, the guy was still his guest. And it has been a while since the last time Zavala had any guests over. He opened the refrigerator to find a drink to offer. Water, milk and two bottle of beer were all he could see. Then suddenly he heard a voice close by.

"What's your name, Big Guy?"

The young man was sitting in the bar stool at the island-style kitchen, staring at him. It was strange that Zavala could not hear any sound of him moving at all. Maybe he really was a thief, Zavala thought, but instead of saying what he was thinking, he said his name. The guy then said his name was Cayde. Then Zavala recalled that last time Shaxx called the guy with that name.

He asked if Cayde wanted to drink beer, and Cayde gladly took the offer. Zavala opened one bottle and gave it to him, which followed by Cayde's question if Zavala was drinking or not. He replied saying that he did not drink after exercise. Zavala took out the warmed lasagna, cut it in half, moved them to two plates and put them on the dining table with forks and knives. Cayde walked over with a beer in his hand, and sat down saying thanks for the food.

"This lasagna's pretty good. Did you make it yourself?"

"The lady who looks after housework made it."

"Wow, you're rich." Cayde said in a joking way. "Well, I could guess it by looking at where you live anyway. And you're also a friend of Shaxx, so."

Zavala shook his head sideways. "I only earn as much as I work."

Cayde said hmm, and put his elbow on the table to support his chin in a hand. Because of the lights, Cayde's blonde hair seemed brighter than before. Zavala could see his high cheekbones and underneath a slim face and cat-like features. Looking at the big blue eyes, Zavala thought that this young man would be quite popular to people around his age. He had a pretty face that young girls like to see on TV. Cayde asked as he was slowly eating lasagna.

"But hey, why are you being so good to me?"


End file.
